Full circle

So here I am, back where I started. Decided to use that beautiful Hemingway theme, even if it makes the text a bit tough to read. Not sure I will be updating this place very often, if at all, so I guess that is OK too.

When I look at this blog I notice that it has 3 quite distinct phases. In the beginning there seems to be much optimism and good will towards my Second Life. Which, looking back on it now, is so naive that I want to kick myself. The second part is when I start to get sad and maudlin. And then there are the posts from last year where I become insufferably self-important. So, looking at all of it together it is a rather embarrassing process of self-observation – to say the least.

There are a few posts which are quite funny. Even re-reading them today and even though I am the one who wrote the stuff, I laugh. Like the one where the pig dies or the one where Xia organizes the computer. Reading these today I see that, naive shmaive, those early days did bring out the very best in me, which is of course the silly part of me. At some point I had to forsake the silly stuff since there was no longer a setting for it. The blog reflects the loss: For the last year or so I didn’t really like the stuff that Alpha was writing about. And the way in which she was writing, I liked even less. She was trying to fill a vacuum with a lot of spurious talk. Never worked. Which is why I eventually stopped altogether.

So, the few funny posts are probably the only things that make this blog worthwhile for me. Only reason why I am not deleting the whole thing really.

About

Alpha Auer is a Second Life avatar who used to be irreverent, mischievous, politically incorrect and frivolous. What her current state of mind might be is anybody's guess, including that of her much bemused human.

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Elif Ayiter is a designer and a researcher.

Her texts have been published at academic journals such as the Journal of Consciousness Studies and Technoetic Arts. She has presented creative as well as research output at conferences including Siggraph, Creativity and Cognition, Computational Aesthetics and Cyberworlds.

She is also the chief editor of the journal Metaverse Creativity with Intellect Journals, UK and is currently studying for a doctoral degree at the Planetary Collegium, CAiiA hub, at the University of Plymouth with Roy Ascott.